The Diffusion of Erin's Law: Examining the Role of the Policy Entrepreneur(sic)(sic)(sic)Palabras clave

What factors influence the likelihood that a state will adopt a policy? Previous scholarship has examined economic, societal, and political factors, but has paid little attention to the value of the policy entrepreneur. Exploring the literature, I argue that the role of a policy entrepreneur is vital to policy innovation and eventual diffusion while accounting for other known factors. Performing Event History Analysis, I investigate the factors which led 30 states from 2011 to 2017 to adopt Erin's Law, a child abuse policy. The findings suggest that the states in which Erin Merryn, the policy entrepreneur, visited had a greater likelihood of adopting Erin's Law over states which were not visited. This discovery not only demonstrates the value of the policy entrepreneur but encourages further investigation of the policy entrepreneur within the diffusion process.